Cong demands peace bonus for U'khand

Uttarakhand Congress on Sunday asked the Centre to fulfill the state's various demands, including <g data-gr-id="11">grant</g> of peace bonus to the state, increasing Lok Sabha seats from 5 to 11 and assembly constituencies to 101.

State Congress President Kishore Upadhyay said the Centre should give "peace bonus" to maintain peace and security in the state and assembly seats should be increased from present 70 to 101 on the basis of geographical differences. Lok Sabha constituencies should also be increased from present 5 to 11 and there should be <g data-gr-id="14">fresh</g> demarcation of development blocks and their numbers should be increased, he said.

Upadhyay said he has written a letter to Chief Minister Harish Rawat, Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal, the five Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha members, and all MLAs that a proposal should be sent to the Centre presenting these four demands. He alleged that when the state came into existence in 2000, attention was not paid to its special features and the BJP left Uttarakhand with many problems for which solutions are still being searched.